^ A P P E N D I X, No. IV. 



The mllclners of the winters there are produdlive of 

 another advantage in regard to the rearing of wool, which 

 ought to be highly prized in a nianufa£luiing country. 

 For, in confequence of that mildnefs, fnow feldom lies 



there i 



jKngland, thefe /keep again produce a clofe fleece of wool of the fame quality 

 as before they went away, 



I call this fort of change temporary, for the want of a word to exprefs 

 it more properly. For it will readily occur to the reader, that wool thus 

 altered will continue to be of the fame quality for ever, if the heat of the 

 elimate in -which the fheep are placed continues invariably the fame. In this fenfc, 

 therefore, it might be faid to be permanent ; and as the finenefs of 

 all wool may be altered by a Cmilar change of aircumftances, the altera- 

 tion produced by a change of breed, cannot perhaps in this fenfe be faid 

 to be invariable ; and therefore it cannot be called, in ftridl mathematical 

 accuracy, permanent : But being thus explained, it is hoped that nofambigu- 

 ity can aiife from the ufe of thefe terms. 



Mr. Le Blanc, upon the authority of feme foreign (with refpeifb to 

 Spain) writers, who have treated flightly upon the fubjeft of Spanifh fneep 

 and wool, and who, probably influenced by the general outcry againft the 

 intolerable privileges belonging to the Mefla (fo the perigrinsting flieep in 

 Spain are called), has adopted the opinion that the fixed fheep (eflantes) In 

 Spain produce wool equally fine with that of the migrating Iheep. This opi- 

 nion, when thus vaguely expreffed, may or may not be true, as tlie read- 

 er will perceive from what has been already faid. For if the fixed flocks, 

 to which he alludes, do remain all the year round in the mountains of 

 Leon and Afturias, or in any other cold place, there can be no doubt 

 but that the wool <5f fuch fheep will be as fine, and in fome refpe<5ls finer 

 in the pile than that of the fame breed of Iheep, if it defcends during the 

 winter, as is ufual, into the warmer plains of Andalufia. But reverfe the 

 cafe, and fay that thefe fheep remain fixed all the year in Andalufia, or 

 fimilar warm parts of the country, and the cafe would be widely diiFerent ; 

 for the wool of thefe fheep would neceffarily be much coarfer in pile than 

 that of the fame breed which had paftured all fummer on the cool moun- 

 tains of Leon and Afturias, or which had travelled to thefe mountains 

 only during the fummer feafon. This concluilon the writer of this ar- 

 ticle would have relied on as certain, had he even had no other authority 

 for it but his own experiments. But when thefe experiments are corro- 

 iorated by the exprefs authority of Ufaritz, the befb informed of all the 

 g]iani{h writers on this fubjecft, who aflerts that the Iheep which remain 



in 



